Good piece, Susan. I'm a born New Yorker, who transplanted herself to Arizona (and all in good time from what I can tell). While I understand the concerns, I don't think government, on any level, has the right to dictate our personal choices. The minute it is allowed in one area, it snowballs into all the others. It started with smoking, is now onto obesity. What will follow that, and where will it stop? There will always be something that others think no one should be doing because they don't like it. We can't take away the free will (ability to choose for ourselves) that God gave us.
IF the argument really is higher medical costs, then you are talking a slippery slope with no end in sight. Look at boxers and football players, suffering head injuries. Is that not a "self-induced" medical issue due to their choices? Their medical care/needs also raises our costs and premiums. What about runners later in life with all kinds of joint problems from all the "healthy" running they did in their earlier years. That can easily also be called "self-induced" as they chose to do all that running in order to be "healthy".
There are far too many things that can affect all of us, regardless of what we do or don't do. Look at all the people who do everything right and still get these so-called smoking/obesity/sports related medical problems.
I'm not advocating that we do "unhealthy" things, but what is unhealthy for one, is not necessarily unhealthy for another.
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Good piece, Susan. I'm a born New Yorker, who transplanted herself to Arizona (and all in good time from what I can tell). While I understand the concerns, I don't think government, on any level, has the right to dictate our personal choices. The minute it is allowed in one area, it snowballs into all the others. It started with smoking, is now onto obesity. What will follow that, and where will it stop? There will always be something that others think no one should be doing because they don't like it. We can't take away the free will (ability to choose for ourselves) that God gave us.
IF the argument really is higher medical costs, then you are talking a slippery slope with no end in sight. Look at boxers and football players, suffering head injuries. Is that not a "self-induced" medical issue due to their choices? Their medical care/needs also raises our costs and premiums. What about runners later in life with all kinds of joint problems from all the "healthy" running they did in their earlier years. That can easily also be called "self-induced" as they chose to do all that running in order to be "healthy".
There are far too many things that can affect all of us, regardless of what we do or don't do. Look at all the people who do everything right and still get these so-called smoking/obesity/sports related medical problems.
I'm not advocating that we do "unhealthy" things, but what is unhealthy for one, is not necessarily unhealthy for another.
Just my two cents.
March 27, 2013 - 12:10pmThis Comment
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